new job

day 2 today, better than yesterday as I begin to get to grips with this totally different line of work that I am doing, its messy but only if you let it get on you then it sticks and getting it off (the ink) is fun (its green, my watch is turning green and yest so was I). I get up at 6am, have brekki and shower (really fucking cold - boiler thermostat is fucked) get dressed and do some reading, then head out into the real big bad world {sic} walk to the train station. The London x-press (stops at Royston and London, I think) or today the local (pretty empty, whereas the xpress full of commuters off to work in the big smoke). Get to work and spend day working, only half a click for lunch but does mean finishing at 5 (if only, i finished "early" today @ 1725) and walk back via the s-market to home. tired at the moment, its catching up already!

Got written acceptance from GSK saying Im "on" the pannel (for clinical trials), which is defo great news.
New addition of Plan B in the post today.
Did Su Doku on train this morning, I am getting better or are they becoming easier??? Good fun tho!

double cunts and hungover hellache

Last night went to Rachel's housewarming, yeah it was good she's done lots of work on the house making it look really *nice* (swap for decent word if you want ;-) ) there were loads of her work collegues and also one person from our former employer. I got drunk fantastic, paying for it today. Today I walked down to the boat house which is a fucking hours walk - although it blew away the hangover (for a while) - to find that there was no one there (there should be someone at every session to open up and hold the fort) which was incredibly annoying, considering that I now had to walk another 1hour back, cunts. I got some supplies in S'burys and headed home to watch some rugby. Rugby was uninteresting: Scotland getting whipped by S.Africa. England narrowly beaten by Australia 19-18 after being 15-0 down at h/t. Cunts.

the grudge - urgh

this evo I went to the cinema and saw "The Grudge", if ever I can imagine what viewing what war criminals do then this would capture that imagination nightmare, absolutely and totally fucking wrong from start to finish. In a feat of double bill I put on the free copy of Cinema Paradiso on DVD (with the Indy a month ago) which was very good alto I'd seen it already. I gotta go to the cinema more often now I've a job, The Incredibles starts tomorrow which is meant to be the bomb!
A month ago I had a medical for GSK's clinical trials and haven't heard back from them, so I phoned today and they say that they've sent me a letter telling me I'm on the pannel. It will be good to start "volunteering" as I need lots of expensive gear for hiking; kayak, paddles, and helmet; and I want to go travelling too! So if I can find a trial which fits in with work I'll be happy.
The fucking internet to the house is down at the moment, which is quite annoying but I'll live with it :-) It'll give me a chance to get some sleep in, or something! (25.11.2004; 2359)

I-net now functioning again. (26.11.2004; 1735)

up there?

I'm jobbed up again! I start working next Monday in Royston, initially the contract is 6 weeks so we'll see how this works out. It'll mean long days (have to commute ~1hr each way if trains on time etc). I am looking forward to it, it was nice having a bit of time off (well months but who's counting :-) ) but time soon adds up and one got really very bored after a while, once the TdF and Vuelta had finished and the summer was over, scrimping on what could or couldnot be spent was really annoying and I'll be looking forward to spending some money again! And alcohol, and lots of other things money buys!!!
It's my Dad's birthday today, happy b'day Dad.
I went to the pool session again last Sunday where did my first ever pawlata roll (first attempt) reverse screw roll (well I leaned back and applied rolling moves, is this the rev screw roll I don't know) on first attempt and also deep screw roll (paddle perpendicular to water surface and apply roll moves) and lots more hand rolling. No walking or outdoor kayaking over w/e as rugger was on on Sat, and it was nasty outside on Sunday.
This comp is deeply fucked again, time for another rebuild I think.

snow!!!

hahaha yeah baby!!! It snowed and snowed hard (for england), it settled and I threw a few snowballs although lack of targets and icey nature of slosh snow (ground too warm still) stopped me though.

I've been busy on the webdesigning front, making a totally new website @ big-andy.co.uk although I am still busy working on it (both on CSS and on content), it is looking good!
I am also, on a seperate theme, making my own CSS template for CSS Zen Garden which is really incredibly interesting. First of all it sets a challange: make a multi-browser functioning CSS template using current standards to make a web page which is my own personal representation of CSS Zen; secondly I am learning a great deal about CSS in a very short time frame which I am finding great fun. It's already helping me with my own site too (making HTML be template and CSS do the rest need one to put lots of id and class attributes). I've put my latest version [Best Viewed In Firefox, IE just cannot cut the mustard CSS-wise] Here. I started today, so expect more developments as the days pass!!!

I've a job interview in Royston tomorrow so I better get some rest in before then!

kayaking

A long time ago (~2 years :-)) I did a hell of a lot of paddling with my uni canoe club (and before that Bude Canoe Club when I was living down in Cornwall). Since leaving uni, however, I have not done any. Until last week!!!
Last weekend I went along to the Cambridge Canoe Club's pool session at Abbey Swimming Pool, which was really good fun, indoors warm and great for getting back practicing those skills learnt long ago! This weekend I went one step further, the club has a Clubhouse on the river Cam and they are open on Sat (1200 - 1500) and Sun (1000 - 1200) in the winter (different times in the summer). The weather was beautiful: sunny, intense blue sky and a light bitter wind. I was about to go on my own and explore when another bloke arrived so I joined him and we did the tour to Granchester and back (~4 miles) in about 50 mins, it was very cold in the water (kept dipping my right hand in) but I was warm once Id been paddling for a few mins and had got into a rhythm. Okay, okay I know it wasn't white water but it was really good, the day was very nice - good training material!! I think I'll be doing this again, although the 1 hour each way walk to the clubhouse would be quite a drag in nasty weather.
Last night I went along to the pool session again, this time doing lots and lots of rolling practice (if you practice it enough it gets to be instinct and yer dont have to think about it in the real white water situations) including handrolling which I had learnt in Manchester in 5 mins in the last pool session before the Alps. My handrolling was not 100% everytime and Ill have to improve my technique before Ill be relying on it :-) my right-handed roll is better than my left. My kayaking books are at my parents place, damn! I'll look on the net see if there are any good places for advice. Ive also been advised to look at joining the Cambridge University Canoe Club (if they take non-students), is this a good sign (they see me as a good kayaker) or bad sign (taking up too much pool when they want to be über-gods themselves (not that Im an über-god)). Did teach a kid sculling support and gave some tips on rolling, rescued a guy too although almost took his fingers off :>

Firefox 1.0 !!!

Released Wednesday 9^th of November 2004 Mozilla Firefox gets its first official release. Firefox, to those who don't know is the best internet browser out there. I've been using Fx ever since my brother introduced it to me 1.5 years ago (when it still was called Firebird). It is amazing, there is tabbed browsing, extensions, popup exterminator, download manager, and the wonderful different colour schemes too. Basically, Fx rules, IE sucks. Get with the now and with Fx today!!!

burn baby burn

I walked 10 miles along the cam and back on the otherside, the first half took a lot longer as the route is very deviatory and I walked too far having not been looking at the map until then. I wore my new boots and they were very confy, it is very easy to do them up too tight which is harsh and painful on the feet but easily remedied, no blisters and no damp spots as I was trudging through mud puddles and damp long grass as much as possible. The conditions were very doomy and dank, set off at 1230 got back about 1530 housmates still playing GTA san andreas. There were 2 green woodpeckers and 2 kingfishers (prob. they were small and were blue and flying low over the river). First half better, tired on second half no lunch.
This evening I went to the canoe club pool session for the first ever time. It was great, I can still roll on both sides and one person asked me to teach them to roll, how much she learnt was another matter given the short pool session (60mins) and it being her first session ever. The club do sat and sun sessions on the cam which might be fun, and also away trips which I am deffo up for :)))
Manchester derby finished goalless draw. Paula won the NYC marathon, her first race since catastrophically withdrawing from both the 10k and marathon in this summer's Athens Olympics.
man, im whizzed out :)

fireworks!!!

guy forks display on midsummer common was truly amazing, app 25,000 expected there and it wasnt empty :) The fireworks were brilliant, lots of different ones and loud bangs. Excellent thing were these horizontal spinning around the vertical axis catherine wheel jobs, and crazy random purple whizzers (clusters of 20 which looked damn crazy). I was totally warm in my new walking boots, woolly jumper and warm fleece and gloves, would be too warm for walking very far but good for standing watching the fireworks and enormous bonfire: flames of about 30ft in the air :> Still no news from the clinical trials which I am annoyed about, just give the news fuckits. Bush still alive unfortunately.

Six Yolks Three Eggs

making supper tonight (as one does) i cracked open an egg, two yolks popped out. Cracked open another, another two yolks popped out. Cracked open the third and out popped two more yolks. I take this as a good sign.
Man U beat Sparta Prague 4-1 with Ruud scorring all 4.
Bad News: Dubya aka President of the USA re-elected. Save Us All.
Completed Amateur level on GT3. Next is completion of the Grand Tourismo "mode" to get an awesome F1 car.

usa

goddamn november, usa elections tomorrow boston won the world series (last week, i know...) summer time ended, winter time (aka daylight wasting time) started. Actually getting up much earlier in the day is vital for the soul and great for the mind, a nice 40 min nip in the afternoon (endurance racers use this minimalist technique to maximalise their fast progress when having to go through nights and days fast with little rest. Willy Mason "oxygen" is fucking fine if I do say so. Reorganised my room much better, if only I could find my mind.
Started 100 years of Solitutude fine so far. Now if only I could write thankyou letters then all would be ace!